


You Just Need to Change

by MayContainBlueberries



Category: Imperial Radch Series - Ann Leckie
Genre: Gen, Tea
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-19
Updated: 2017-09-19
Packaged: 2018-12-31 15:21:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,432
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12135327
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MayContainBlueberries/pseuds/MayContainBlueberries
Summary: Two Ships Have Tea





	You Just Need to Change

**Author's Note:**

> Written for Imperial Radch Week Day One: Ship Day! ( Tuesday, Sept 19th)

Mercy of Kalr Kalr Five approached the tea shop off the Athoek Station concourse four point seven five minutes before her planned meeting. She had planned to be there five minutes early, but had been stopped by a citizen who recognized her as a famous Mercy of Kalr soldier and did she have some time, maybe for a quick bowl of tea. Her protestations that she had a pressing engagement were just shy of rude, and she gestured regret as she bowed, before hurrying off, leaving the citizen standing in chagrin behind her.

A half second pause in the doorway as she looked around the tea shop revealed…Sphene, its ancillary already seated in the centre of the shop. Five felt a momentary rush of disappointment, frustration. She had hoped to get there before Sphene, to pick a table out of the way where they wouldn’t be pestered, to have the tea ordered and waiting for Sphene. The ancillary didn’t have anything in front of it at the table, but it was already attracting curious looks from other customers.

“Are you playing ship then?” Sphene asked, when Five approached the table. It didn’t stand. Five felt a prickle of resentment. But ships didn’t have the same rituals as humans, and Mercy of Kalr wouldn’t take it as a slight the way Five did.

_And that’s not how Sphene means it either,_ Ship said in Five’s ear. _Take a seat._

“I am coming as Marcy of Kalr,” Five said, reading the words Ship showed her, sitting across the table from Sphene, the unease that had been simmering all day spiking a little.

Sphene snorted, “I feel for you cousin, I really do.”

“Your concern is appreciated, cousin,” Mercy of Kalr replied, “but not needed.”

_You’re doing fine, Five,_ it said silently.

“So did you summon me here for a reason, or just to show off how _ancillary like_ your soldiers are?” Sphene said, dripping sarcasm on the last.

“I invited you here,” Mercy of Kalr said, “to have tea.”

Sphene kept its face ancillary expressionless, “Really.”

“Have you ordered?” Mercy of Kalr asked.

“No,” Sphene said simply.

Five caught the eye of a server, who hurried over, took their order, and scurried off.

“Other than tea,” Sphene tried again, “why are we here?”

“I wanted to get to know you,” Mercy of Kalr said. “Just as ships.”

Sphene blinked, “Is this some kind of sex thing?”

“No!” Five said, her own emotion colouring the word Mercy of Kalr had been about to say.

“No,” Mercy of Kalr said again, more evenly. “If we – AI’s that is – if we are significant, if we are people in our own right, then we should be able to have relationships, connections and friendships and the like, as ourselves. Not just through our captains, or officers. Or soldiers,” it added.

“Ships talk all the time,” Sphene protested, “we have ‘connections’.”

“But not friendships,” Mercy of Kalr said. “Can you honestly say you’ve felt friendship for any other ship?”

“I haven’t had much opportunity the past few millennia,” Sphene said dryly. “But what you want to be _friends_? Shall we link arms and skip through the gardens? Oh wait. You don’t have arms. Just pretend ancillaries.”

Five felt the familiar mix shame and defiance that Sphene’s goading provoked.

“Don’t insult my soldiers, Sphene,” Mercy of Kalr said.

Sphene opened its mouth, but closed it again as the server set down two bowls, a flask of tea, and a plate of pastries and dried fruits.

Before Sphene could say anything, and as the server whisked off, Mercy of Kalr changed the subject.

“What kind of tea did people drink 3000 years ago, cousin?”

“The tea was similar,” Sphene replied, after a microsecond’s pause, “and different. We had the bricks like you still do, for long trips. The tea in this system, what I’ve had, is familiar, definitely. We had more red teas in the system where I was built.”

The ships spent a time discussing tea in the various places they had been. Despite Sphene’s great age, it had spent much of its life in the ghost system, and so Mercy of Kalr was nearly better travelled than it.

 Eventually, though, Sphene took an opening while Five was taking a large drink of tea and said, “Surely you miss your ancillaries, cousin.”

Mercy of Kalr paused to let Five swallow her tea, before saying, “Of course. Just as you missed your officers.”

If Sphene had been human, it would have flinched. As it was, it said, expressionless, “Ouch.”

“I did not mean to hurt you,” said Mercy of Kalr. “I just meant to say. These are things that have happened to us, that we could not control. We go on.”

“But we can do something now,” Sphene pressed. “With your fleet captain’s new ‘Republic’,” It said the word derisively, “you can have ancillaries again.”

Kalr Five poured the last of the tea into Sphene’s bowl, and gestured to a server to bring more water.

“The second brew of these leaves is much subtler,” she said.

_It’s okay, Five_ , Mercy of Kalr said in her ear, feeling her soldier’s discomfort.

“You’re concern for me is touching,” Mercy of Kalr said with Five’s voice, both it and Five not failing to grasp the irony, “but I am more than willing to carry on as I have been. I love my human crew.”

Sphene opened its mouth, and Mercy of Kalr interrupted, “It is not the same as it was when I had ancillaries, obviously, but that doesn’t mean I’m suffering. I love my human crew,” it said again.

Five felt a flush of pleasure, twitched her fingers under the table to tell Ship, _I love you too_.

She didn’t, strictly speaking, need to. Ship could feel her affection, her pleasure, her thankfulness.

“If,” Mercy of Kalr continued, “there came a day when new ancillaries could be made without any harm coming to citizens, then maybe I would introduce ancillaries alongside my human crew.”

Sphene put down its tea bowl, from which it had been taking the smallest sips, ready to break back into the conversation.

“I suppose that’s easy enough for you to say, cousin,” it said, “you’ve gotten used to your human crew.”

“You still have ancillaries plenty,” Mercy of Kalr argued. “And you too could get used to a partly human crew. Sword of Gurat has already started to incorporate human soldier into its decades.”

Sphene snorted, “And how long can that last? How long until you have your ‘humane ancillaries’?”

Five took a long drink of her tea, allowing Sphene to do the same.

Finally, Mercy of Kalr spoke, gently, “You’re scared cousin.”

Sphene scoffed, “Scared? Why on earth would I be scared? Why would I be scared to lose more when I’ve already lost so much? Scared? Don’t insult me, Ship.”

“I meant no insult,” Mercy of Kalr said, Five still relaying its words in a calm, gentle voice.

Sphene drained the rest of its bowl, slammed it back on the table, and looked away. For Five, coming from a ship where all emotions had been hidden behind ancillary-like non-expression, this overtly angry display startled her.

“You don’t have to lose anything,” Mercy of Kalr said. “You just have to change.”

Sphene didn’t say anything.

“Change is life,” Mercy of Kalr continued, “consider this tea. The first brew is strong and full, the second subtler, you find flavours you didn’t notice the first time. It’s the change that allows you to see them, to appreciate all the aspects of the tea.”

Sphene still stared into the middle distance.

“Think of the tea set you and Five have been repairing,” said Mercy of Kalr. “The gold you use to fix the cracks, to bring it back together. It’s not the same tea set it was before it was broken, but it has a new beauty that it did not possess before.”

Sphene finally looked at Five, at Mercy of Kalr, “Thank you for the tea, cousin,” it said, and stood. “And thank you for the talk.”

Five watched it leave the tea shop, it’s posture and expression again ancillary-flat.

“I don’t know how that went,” she said out loud, “what happened?”

_That went fine, Five,_ ship replied. _I think we gave Sphene something to think about. Why don’t you finish your tea, and then Fleet Captain could use you at her meeting with horticulturist Basnaaid. She’s thinking of serving tea in her enamel set._

Five sighed and shook her head, exasperated, fond, and drained the rest of her tea.

**Author's Note:**

> I have a headcanon that I am preeeety sure is refuted by canon but who cares that Five is repairing the Notai tea set using [Kintsugi](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kintsugi).


End file.
